Health Blog

Fitness haiku: Always a scar, but that’s OK

Surgeon says, “Looks good!”
“Will there be a scar?” I ask.
“Little one,” he says.

I went to my favorite plastic surgeon today for my three-weeks-after-nose-surgery checkup. Nah, not a nose job; more of a Mohs job, which is a procedure used to remove skin cancer, one oh-so-thin layer at a time.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about are the slightest bit curious, you can catch up on my skin-cancer journey here …. then here … then here.

This was my second visit — third, if you count my oh-my-gosh-is-gunk-leaking-through-the-bandage? visit two days after surgery. (It wasn’t, by the way).

On my visit two weeks ago, Belinda, Dr. Patrick Pownell’s nurse, removed his perfect circle of minuscule stitches. Then she gave me wound-care directions, which I dutifully followed. Twice a day, I dotted a dab of diluted hydrogen peroxide on the skin graft (taken from behind my ear) on my nose. Then I put a thin smear of Vaseline on it and covered it with a bandage.

At that point, Dr. Pownell said I could resume running (hooray!) which I have. Truth to tell, I’m a little faster than I had been before surgery. Perhaps resting really IS a good thing (advice I tell people but, until I had no choice, I don’t tend to follow myself).

Today, after removing my nose bandage, Belinda said everything looked as it should. Dr. Pownell echoed her healing pronouncement. Then he and I resumed our ongoing talk (which began in the operating room) about running. He finished a marathon a few days before my original surgery and is planning to run the half portion (like I am!) of the Dallas Marathon.

I asked if I could start swimming again, and he said yes. Then he showed me a sticky covering I’m supposed to put on my wound at night to help meld original skin with the grafted circle.

“It will minimize scarring,” he said.

“So there will be a scar?” I asked. “Not that it matters, really, but I’m just wondering.”

“There’s always a little one,” he said.

I thanked him again, shook his hand for the third time since arriving, and made a follow-up appointment for two days after the half marathon. Then I left, opening the door to a glorious day, to a sky cloudless and blue.

As I walked to the car and drove into work, I thought about what he said about the scar, and that I was quite serious when I told him I don’t mind having one.

A scar, on the nose or on the heart, is a badge of sorts; not exactly of honor, but of remembrance. It’s a memento of what we slosh our way through to emerge, somewhat or significantly changed, on the other side.

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Health, fitness, nutrition and medical matters for you and your Dallas-Fort Worth family.